Black Monday Murders

[numberthirty]

Here's something else that I just came across: Gaddis realizes before he gets eaten that the one outlying crash (the one Mammon didn't cause) was in 1987. According to Wikipedia, IRL that particular crash is also the one that is primarily referred to by the nickname "Black Monday." It also remains, "the largest one-day percentage decline in the DJIA [Dow Jones]." So if we didn't already realize that this particular crash is key, well...it looks like the series is named after it.

Also worth noting is that the name of the series being plural could be a subtle but sizable hint.

[numberthirty]

If nothing else, it's encouraging to see Hickman take some narrative steps that indicate the series will very likely be continuing into another arc (maybe more).

My number on question right now though -- where is Alexi? He's the only Kankrin member remaining. This is trouble, since he hasn't really got any allies in Caina (that we know of), and it also means that he will be perpetually in the stone chair. Which is of course...very bad news.

That is indeed an interesting question.

[seismic-2]

I'm still puzzled (as, of course, we're supposed to be) by the "November 31" date assigned to the final scene, in Argentina. Does this mean that this scene isn't really happening, and it's just a hallucination? Or is it actually happening, but in some alternate reality connected to our own? (There have certainly been lots of scenes in "unreal" places!) Or is it meant to connect to the "challenge" scene between the Rothschilds and Kankrin, where we were told that time is warped within the arena of the challenge, so maybe this Argentina scene is actually happening during the challenge as a part of it?

[numberthirty]

I'm still puzzled (as, of course, we're supposed to be) by the "November 31" date assigned to the final scene, in Argentina. Does this mean that this scene isn't really happening, and it's just a hallucination? Or is it actually happening, but in some alternate reality connected to our own? (There have certainly been lots of scenes in "unreal" places!) Or is it meant to connect to the "challenge" scene between the Rothschilds and Kankrin, where we were told that time is warped within the arena of the challenge, so maybe this Argentina scene is actually happening during the challenge as a part of it?

One reader's take...

- That scene is exactly as it happened, and completely on the level. It just seems like it took time past where the body of the issue closes to find him. Feels like an epilogue.

[seismic-2]

One reader's take...

- That scene is exactly as it happened, and completely on the level.

If it's completely on the level, then it should take place on November 30 or December 1, not on the non-existent day presumably between them (November 31). That's why the impossible date indicates that either this scene isn't real, or it is happening in some "warped time" generated during the Ria-Viktor showdown.

[JKtheMac]

If it's completely on the level, then it should take place on November 30 or December 1, not on the non-existent day presumably between them (November 31). That's why the impossible date indicates that either this scene isn't real, or it is happening in some "warped time" generated during the Ria-Viktor showdown.

Maybe he is hiding in a date abandoned by calendars. He is magically hiding in an obscure Romulus calander date for example.

[seismic-2]

Maybe he is hiding in a date abandoned by calendars. He is magically hiding in an obscure Romulus calander date for example.

I like that idea, that somehow he's hiding out in time! We still haven't learned what all went on when he disappeared, other than that the situation had erupted into chaos.

[JKtheMac]

I like that idea, that somehow he's hiding out in time! We still haven't learned what all went on when he disappeared, other than that the situation had erupted into chaos.

It also runs contrary to the whole cyclical nature of the series.

[Joker]

It also wouldn't be the first time a Hickman book had a typo.

[numberthirty]

It also wouldn't be the first time a Hickman book had a typo.

This was my very first thought.

If it's completely on the level, then it should take place on November 30 or December 1, not on the non-existent day presumably between them (November 31). That's why the impossible date indicates that either this scene isn't real, or it is happening in some "warped time" generated during the Ria-Viktor showdown.

It certainly could be.

That said, it fit's right into what has been set up in "Our" second arc. He also seems to be talking about what has been in motion in "Our" second arc.

[son of booyah]

Y'all. Hickman, via twitter, says the following:

"Also, we're waiting to solicit the final arc until Tomm is a good ways into it."

My heart... it's gonna take a while to sweep up the pieces.

[numberthirty]

Y'all. Hickman, via twitter, says the following:

"Also, we're waiting to solicit the final arc until Tomm is a good ways into it."

My heart... it's gonna take a while to sweep up the pieces.

Well, bummer.

That said, still kind of a bummer.

While it looked like news elsewhere was pointing to this possibility, it's still a little bit of a drag that a similarly-sized final arc looks like how this will play out.

[numberthirty]

Ria really pulled out all the stops in settling accounts. This had been mentioned in a previous issue as an option, but I didn't expect it to come to this. Now, what should we make of the fact that the final scene in this issue takes place on "November 31"?

Potential development on this front...

https://twitter.com/JHickman/status/970762802490208257

[Yohei72]

Potential development on this front...

https://twitter.com/JHickman/status/970762802490208257

Holy carp! "Each issue looks like it be 64 pages." Is that another typo?!

[hunterpend]

It looks like some of these tweets were later deleted? His Image creator page no longer lists BMM as a project... I gather the current status is *limbo*?